Hidden Menace - Part 2
by Alloy
Summary: When Eve is destroyed, a new enemy terrorizes New York.


Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Parasite Eve that Square has already taken credit for. The only character I own is Ellen Lone. If you take her without asking my permission, I will sue you because I am broke and just a wee bit desperate. Thank you.

Author's notes: This story is set as if Parasite Eve 2 had never come out. If you do read my story, for God's sake, review it! Even if it is a flame, (and it had better be a reasonable one at that) I want you to review. That way, if there is anything that you find particularly shoddy, you can help me make it better by leaving constructive criticism. And of course, I answer every one who leaves me their e-mail address and a review. Thank you. 

This story is dedicated to Brian and Danny who help me stay sane everyday. Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. =)

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Hidden Menace-Part 2

Remembrance.

Written by Alloy

__

1998, Christmas Eve

_The air is permeated with a dank and malodorous smell. With her every breath, the little girl inhales a lungful of the disgusting odor. Her waking mind wonders what the smell could possibly be, but her subconscious knows. The smell is all too familiar. It wraps itself around her nostrils, creating a scent that she will remember for the rest of her life. She looks around the gray-white room and her mind struggles to identify the substance that wound itself around the four doors. The stench is coming from the substance. It is an orange slime, almost transparent, and it gurgles softly. A sound that, despite its quiet quality, scares her all the more. Her eyes ease into a frown, and she gasps softly as she realizes just what the disgusting slime is. Mitochondria. Tears fill her eyes and she pulls instinctively away from the spurt of orange. This slime was bad. She had heard it had gotten her father. It was evil. It was strong. But worst of all, it was alive. _

The child wonders why she is here. She doesn't want to be. Where is her mother? Where is Lenora? She needs them to stop her shudders of terror. She wants to call out to someone so badly, to anyone. She doesn't want to be in this terrible room any longer. She can remember the screams that sliced through the walls and entered her ears. Something bad had happened to everybody, and that was why she was here. She wonders if her mother and sister were hurt. She wonders vaguely why she is trapped. She doesn't think that there is a way out. At least, there is not one that lets her escape safely from the arms of the mitochondria. She wants to be brave, she really does. She doesn't want to shame her father. He is dead, but she still feels that he is watching what she does. 

Heaving a small sigh, she stands and walks shakily over to the desk where she might be able to reach the vent. She has seen this done many times in movies, and she might be tall enough to reach. She stretches her arms high as they will go, but she can't grasp hold of the vent shaft. A small creak makes her look down. A sob escapes her lips. The mitochondria are moving to surround the desk she is standing on. The little girl looses her footing and slips right down into the mitochondria. They move. It surprises her. They do not want to eat her! The little girl looks down at the papers that she is sitting on. They are important papers. She can tell; they are in the cream colored folders that her mother never wants her to touch. Her mother is not here now, and so she smiles, giddy with relief that the slime is not as bad as she thought. She opens the file slowly; she also glances over her shoulder every once in a while to make sure that the mitochondria is not advancing. The papers fall out as soon as she lifts the top of the folder off and she snatches at one greedily while the rest flutter to the floor. Her eyes scan over the sheet, but she does not understand what any of the words mean, and it is difficult to pronounce them. Cells...Daniel...Eve...There is however, one word she can pronounce. Actually, it is a name and the she struggles to say it, for she is only a mere child of six.

"A-A-A-ya-Aya." The child whispers triumphantly. She looks at the photo adjacent to the bio. The face in the photograph is kind and beautiful. The woman has pastel blonde hair that frames her face in a way that makes her seem like a seraph. Her nose is pert and small. Her luminous blue-green eyes reflect kindness, innocence and a type of wariness. The eyes capture the child's heart. They seem so tired; they seem so drained of happiness. The girl's fingers trace the photo gently; as if she can actually comfort the woman. The girl tilts her head and slowly lets the picture flutter to the floor. She hears something. Whatever it is, it makes a soft scraping sound. The girl inspects the room and finds that the sound is coming from a door behind her. A prickle of fear slides up her spine slowly. So slowly that the girl feels she is mad. The door slams open. A woman stumbles in. The little girl scrambles under the desk to hide from the woman. She hears a moan. The girl peeks her head out to see if she can see anything. She finds the woman on the floor. She is in obvious pain, but there is something threatening about her. The little girl wants to help, and yet there is an aura around the woman that is menacing. This aura keeps the little child back. The girl waits patiently for some movement from the woman. Finally, the woman turns. Her eyes are closed. One glows scarlet. The little girl gasps when she sees this. The child advances quietly and catches a glimpse of the woman. It is Aya! The girl cries out softly and runs behind the desk once again. 

"H-h-help." Aya calls weakly. "Stop her. She...She is...Oh, God, she's coming..." 

The little girl tilts her head in puzzlement. Who is Aya talking about? Is it a bad woman? The child wonders. It must be, for Aya seems to be in such great pain. A shriek emits from Aya and the little girl quickly puts her hands up to her ears to muffle the sound. 

"No...I...will...not...let you...control...me." Aya gasps out. The girl shuts her eyes tighter and wishes that she were able to help Aya. Tears stream down her face. They sting her eyes and wet her shirt. 

"No...no...no!" Aya screams. All is silent. When the little girl garners enough courage to catch a glimpse of how Aya is, she sees instead, a creature. The creature itself is indescribably beautiful. It is sculpted in some ways like a human, but actually resembles an angel. The entire creature is sky blue and is streaked with light sea greens. The head is haloed in golden locks that shine with an inhuman shimmer. The wings span about three to four feet, flapping soundlessly. The eyes. They are the sharpest blues that the little girl has ever seen. They are slashed carelessly with bright green. One eye is wrong though. It looks too vile for Aya's gentleness. It is circled with a coral pink and starts at the lid and slowly darkens ominously. The little girl is terrified. This is not the Aya she wants to meet. This Aya is scary, evil. The mitochondrion oozes its way to Aya's side. Aya gives a shrill laugh and spreads her wings. Her wings cleave the air with a sharp whistle. She searches the room a bit, looking, searching for something. She narrows her eyes at the desk and the little girl thinks that Aya might have seen her. However, Aya just gives a vicious smile and elevates rapidly to the ceiling. Once there, the mitochondrion that coats the walls grotesquely slams the ceiling open, leaving an exit for Aya. Aya beams at the city below her as she soars out, her wings offering her a new freedom. All the while, the little girl just huddles beneath the oak desk. Too scared to move, knowing that the city's savior had turned into their worst enemy. 

*****

October 18th, 2008

The soft hum of the piano kills all other sound. As soon as Ellen's fingers dashes rapidly over the keys, the world ceases to exist. The notes block all other thoughts in Ellen's mind. The only thing she is thinking about is the lush swell of the music. She closes her eyes in joy as the song comes to an emotional end. Giving a soft sigh, Ellen closes the folder that contains the music sheets that she has come to cherish. The sheets are unlabeled and the title is unknown. Ellen had found this wonderful music purely by chance. She had walked to the abandoned hospital down her block, perhaps when she was eight, and had searched through the piles of trash and had discovered the music sheets. Later, upon inspecting the sheets and finding that they were to be played by piano, she had asked her mother to get her lessons. Her mother had surprisingly approved of getting Ellen lessons. It didn't matter why her mother had given her the lessons; all that did matter was that she had them now. 

"Ellen?" Her sister asks in her soft and quiet voice.

"I'm in the study." Ellen calls out. Her elder sister approaches the room and as she enters, gives the room a look of disgust. Lennie has never appreciated things like the arts. Lennie prefers to study, to get good grades. Lennie regally walks to the piano and gives it another look of revulsion. Ellen cowers, as she always does under her sister's scrutinizing gaze. 

"Mother said that you are to shut all the windows today." Lennie says imperiously, as if the orders had come from her instead of their mother.

"All right." Ellen replies softly. She just wants her sister out of the room so she can practice the piano with ease. 

"Don't you want to know why you have to shut all the windows?" Lennie asks smugly.

"Not really." Ellen says curtly.

"Well," Lennie continues as if she has not heard Ellen. " They say that _She's_ coming today, and we don't want to get...touched." Ellen freezes. 

"She...She's coming?" Ellen wheezes.

"Yes." 

"Wh-why?" Ellen questions hoarsely.

"What do you mean why?" Lennie asks incredulously.

"Why is she coming?"

"God Ellen! You don't ask questions like _that_! That'll get you...infected!" Lennie snaps. Ellen does not hear. She is thinking, she is remembering. Lennie scowls and waves her hand in front of Ellen's face for a moment. Once she gets no response, Lennie shrugs and leaves the room, feeling as undisturbed as when she had entered. A bit of vertigo seems to enter Ellen's body. She feels the blood rush to her head; she feels the world swaying. Ellen stumbles haphazardly to her piano bench where she collapses onto her beloved instrument. After calming herself, she stands and smoothes her attire. Her throat is sore and dry, so she decides to get a drink. From the kitchen, Ellen proceeds to sneak into her room silently. She had never thought that she would need this. Ellen reaches under her bed, pulling out a box cast of solid iron. She unlocks the box and rummages through it, pulling out the papers and glancing at them to make sure that she does not miss the paper she is looking for. At last she finds the one most important thing anyone could own. More important than her music even. It is a bio. The bio of Aya Brea. Ellen exhales a breath that she didn't even know she was holding. Her fingers smooth over the laminated sheet of paper. Ellen knows she has a trip to make. 

*****

The leaves of autumn crunch deliciously under Ellen's feet and the wind screams with delight in whipping the humans around. Ellen hugs herself tighter and assures herself that there is no way that She can be here. Ellen increases her pace and loses herself in her thoughts. As the trees creak and sigh, Ellen looks nervously about her. The hospital has never seemed so long away. 

The old Monteifore Hospice is falling apart. Lose rubble surrounds the old hospital, and the doors hang by a thread by the hinges. Windows, long broken, are cemented with spider webs. Dead grass decorates the front of the hospital and old papers and garbage light enough to be carried by the wind float freely. Ellen holds out a hand and grabs onto papers she deems worthy. However, most of them are just trash. Records of patients long dead. None of them hold anything about the elusive Miss Aya Brea. Ellen walks cautiously to the entrance of the old hospital. She enters the hospital with doubt about the sanitation in Monteifore. She has never seen the hospital in such bad condition. The gray paint on the walls peel slowly, and the floor is caked with mud. The ceiling lights hangs lose, looking like the wire trapeze performers hung upon. Ellen's burgundy eyes fill with sadness. It has been eight long years since she approached this hospital, and it looks disastrous. She steels herself for the grueling task of finding a shred of information about Aya, for that is why she has come. Before she can start looking, Ellen notices a man inspecting the desks of the nurses. 

"Who are you?" Ellen calls suspiciously. The man seems startled and jumps around to face her. Ellen sees that he is Asian and is about forty or so. He is dressed in a rumpled blue shirt with jeans to match. She is relieved to see that he is unarmed.

"Uh, hello...yes, well, I am a scientist." The man says nervously.

"That's not what I asked. What are you doing here?" Ellen inquires.

"I am looking for information." The man replies shakily.

"Well, then we're here for the same thing, aren't we?" Ellen asks snidely.

"Yes." He says simply. Ellen walks over to him and frowns at the papers on the desk behind him. 

"Hey!" Ellen gasps. 

"What?" The man asks. His eyes convey puzzlement.

"Those papers! They have...Her name on it!" Ellen exclaims.

"Who? Aya?" The man says frowning.

"Yes! That's who I was looking for!" Ellen declares. 

"Ah..." Understanding seeps into his face and he sighs. Suddenly, his face looks haggard and sad. Ellen is alarmed at such a quick change.

"What is it?" She asks concerned.

"We are in trouble." The scientist says, shaking his head forlornly.

"What? From who?" Ellen demands.

"Ah, from Aya of course." He says simply.

"Don't say that name!" Ellen hisses severely. A dry chuckle emerges from his lips. He rubs his eyes and turns away. A silence stretches between the two and they both look away.

"Well, I don't believe I know your name." The man says abruptly.

"It's Ellen. Ellen Lone." She says pragmatically.

"Ah, pleased to meet you Ellen. My name is Maeda." The man says smiling gently.

"Hello Maeda." Ellen says cautiously.

"Introductions made, now we go and search." Maeda states.

"Search?" 

"Yes, we are to look for a cure." Maeda says tiredly.

"A cure? For what?" Ellen asks tilting her head. Her hands wring agitatedly.

"A cure so that the Eve infection in Aya may die." Maeda says.

To be continued...

Okay, now, I hope that you enjoyed this story. Please review it. Thanks! 


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